Littlest Pet Shop (2012)
Littlest Pet Shop is a Canadian–American children's animated television series developed by Julie McNally-Cahill and Tim Cahill for Hasbro. Based on the Littlest Pet Shop and Blythe toyline by Hasbro, the show centers on Blythe Baxter, a teenage girl who, after moving into an apartment in a metropolitan area, gains the ability to communicate with animals. Located below her apartment is the eponymous pet store where Blythe works and talks to a group of pets who regularly reside at a day care in the shop. Worried that a corrupt rival business will drive their shop out of business, the pets depend on Blythe to drive business into the store with her pet fashion designs. Produced by Hasbro Studios and DHX Media, the series premiered on The Hub cable channel (which was renamed as Discovery Family in late 2014) on November 10, 2012 and ended on June 4, 2016, totaling four seasons and 104 episodes. Animated using Adobe Flash animation, completion of a single episode takes roughly one year with several in production at once. While it mostly received praise from reviewers for its writing and characters, the show was criticized for its embedded marketing. Several crew members have additionally received accolades for their work on the show. The series is part of the company's franchise reboot, where Hasbro released a new line of Littlest Pet Shop toys designed to more closely resemble the characters on the show. A mobile game and comic book adaptation were also made. Plot The series follows Blythe Baxter, a young girl living with her air pilot father, Roger. Forced to move out from her suburban hometown following her father's promotion, she moves into an apartment located in a crowded city. Their complex is located above the eponymous Littlest Pet Shop—a pet store that also serves as a day camp for numerous pets—where Blythe works as a fashion designer. Her adventure begins when she discovers that she alone can miraculously understand and talk to the pets that regularly stay at the shop, in addition to most other animals on the planet. As she and the pets spend time together, they find the pet shop jeopardized by a larger pet store managed by Fisher Biskit and his snooty twin daughters, Whittany and Brittany Biskit. To avoid being dispersed, the pets convince Blythe to remain an employee. The pets who reside in the day camp of the store are Pepper Clark, a wisecracking striped skunk who is passionate about comedy; Minka Mark, a bouncy spider monkey with a flair for painting and visual arts; Penny Ling, a sensitive giant panda interested in rhythmic gymnastics; Russell Ferguson, a hedgehog who is often the self-appointed leader of his animal bunkmates; Sunil Nevla, a mongoose and hopeful magician; Vinnie Terrio, a clumsy gecko obsessed with dancing; and Zoe Trent, a diva-like cavalier king charles spaniel with a talent for singing. Other human characters include Mrs. Anna Twombly, owner of the shop and Blythe's boss; and Youngmee Song, Sue Patterson, and Jasper Jones; Blythe's friends. Characters *Blythe Baxter Voiced by Ashleigh Ball (English), Ai Kakuma (Japanese) *Pepper Clark Voiced by Tabitha St. Germain (English), Ai Kayano (Japanese) *Russell Ferguson Voiced by Samuel Vincent (English), Miyu Irino (Japanese) *Vinnie Terrio Voiced by Kyle Rideout (English) *Minka Mark Voice by Kira Tozer (English), Satomi Arai (Japanese) *Sunil Nevla Voice by Peter New (English) *Zoe Trent Voice by Nicole Oliver (English), Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese) *Penny Ling Voice by Jocelyne Loewen (English), Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese) Category:Littlest Pet Shop Category:Hub Network